MSNBC “News”

By Breeanne Howe

Once again, MSNBC has been busted for selectively editing a video to make it fit their narrative. This time the subject was gun control and MSNBC took the classy route of exploiting the emotions of a country still trying to recover from the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School over one month ago.

Neil Heslin, who’s son was killed in the shooting, is featured in the clip during his testimony at a legislative hearing on Monday. While he was speaking, Heslin asked members of the audience, “I ask if there’s anybody in this room that can give me one reason or challenge this question: why anybody in this room needs to have … one of these assault-style weapons or military weapons or high-capacity clips?” He then paused, looked around the room and waited for an answer to his query. When no one spoke up, Heslin followed up with, “Not one person can answer that question.” At that point, coming to the logical conclusion that Heslin’s question was not rhetorical, a few people in the room answered him aloud; each citing the second amendment in very respectful tones. The court, understandably not big on audience participation, then warned that they would clear the room should the viewers not be silent. If you were watching MSNBC however, the exchange between Heslin and the audience went very differently.

In their version of the “news,” MSNBC aired Heslin’s question and immediately cut to the audience answering his question; no statement of confirmation from Heslin that he was, in fact, looking for an answer. Martin Bashir, MSNBC “reporter,” then summed up the clip by claiming, “a father’s grief interrupted by the cries of a heckler.” The Media Research Center was quick with their response to the obvious deception, with Founder Brent Bozell stating:

There is now a clear pattern of deception at NBC News. It is the most egregious violation of journalistic ethics. First they edited the Trayvon Martin 911 call to fabricate a racist motive. Then Andrea Mitchell tried to invent a fake “supermarket scanner moment” for Mitt Romney. Now MSNBC is deceptively editing footage of Sandy Hook testimony in order to smear gun rights advocates.

“This is not how a legitimate, professional news organization operates. MSNBC’s relentless anti-gun advocacy is bad enough, but this is downright dishonest. Time and time again NBC News has demonstrated why the American people can’t trust a single thing they say.

On Wednesday, with an apology notably missing, MSNBC acknowledged the criticism and aired the entire unedited video. Their tacit admittance of wrong-doing only proves Bozell’s point further – NBC cannot be trusted and to declare themselves a news outlet is their biggest fabrication to date.